HE AIN'T HEAVY... HE'S MY BUSINESSCOUGHT BETWEEN PROFITS AND POSTERITY, JIMMIE VAUGHAN STRUGGLES TO KEEP STEVIE RAY'S LEGACY A STEP AHEAD OF THE BOOLEGS

"When I first started tending bar at the airport," Newhouse says, "I'd be talking to someone, and it came up in the conversation that I played music, and they'd ask, 'Well, who did you play with?' I'd tell em, and they'd go--he rolls his eyes--'Yeah, right.' You knew what they were thinking. So it got to the point where I just didn't even bring it up."
To make matters worse, most of Newhouse's memorabilia from the old days were destroyed in a flood a few years ago. All that remains are a few newspaper clippings and a tape made during a 1979 performance at the Bluebird Lounge in Fort Worth, Texas, featuring Johnny Reno on sax.

But in a little less than a month, Newhouse will have the proof--a nicely pressed CD in a slick package, prominently featuring his mug. It will be Newhouse's chance to regain the fame--and perhaps a little of the fortune--denied him 12 years ago, when the band dumped him.

"It's exciting, sure," Newhouse says, "but the only regret I have is that it's being released because there's nothing else there. That's the sad thing about it.

"It took Stevie's death to get this album out, and I wouldn't wish that on anybody."

A FIRST LISTEN... v9-16-92